Wednesday, April 2, 2014

A
biochemist located in the San Francisco Bay Area believes that she has
drastically improved, if not cured, her daughter's autism through
eliminating monosodium glutamate, or MSG, from her diet.

Katherine
Reid, Ph.D., says her daughter Brooke began exhibiting symptoms of
autism at age two. Brooke's communication capabilities were far below
average, and she failed to develop normal human connections. She also
suffered from tantrums and digestive complications including
constipation.

Dr. Reid's husband, a cellular biologist, became
suspicious of his daughter's symptoms and began researching, only to
find that Brooke was showing nearly every characteristic of autism.
After seeing their pediatrician, who also agreed that something was
wrong, the family hired a psychologist to test Brooke's learning
abilities. The results were devastating in that they showed that she
suffered immensely from severe learning disabilities, ultimately
diagnosing her with moderate autism.

"She was in her own world," Dr. Reid said. "Her
actions were repetitive, like doing a puzzle over and over again for
hours. And she exhibited signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder. She
couldn't stand going home in the stroller on a different route without
having a screaming tantrum."

Soon, most of Dr.
Reid's free time was dedicated to researching autism and the struggles
that other families were experiencing. Through her research, she learned
that many children suffering from the disorder had improved symptoms
after altering their diets to exclude MSG, gluten and dairy products.